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SA’s credit bureaus contradict threats by collection company ETC that non-payment of e-tolls could get road users blacklisted.

Road users need not panic – non-payment of e-toll bills will not get you blacklisted.

This is the firm word from SA’s credit bureaus, in reaction to recent news around e-tolls and default judgments that has sparked a new wave of panic around the government’s embattled highway tolling project.

In a statement last week, the Credit Bureau Association (CBA) stated categorically that road users could not – and would not – be blacklisted for not paying their e-toll bills. “Information relating to e-tolls/SANRAL [SA National Roads Agency Limited] will not be held on the credit bureaus.

“The Transport Laws and Related Matters Amendment Act, 2013, which amended the South African National Roads Agency Limited and National Roads Act, 1998, specifically excludes the levying and collecting of e-tolls from the provisions of the National Credit Act, 2005 and the Regulations thereto, as amended from time to time (“the NCA”).

“Credit bureaus receive, hold, display and remove consumer information in accordance with the provisions of the NCA and accordingly are not able to hold information which is specifically excluded from the provisions of the NCA.”

The CBA, an industry body representing 9 of the 14 registered credit bureaus within South Africa, further stated that any information relating to e-tolls or SANRAL, which had been “inadvertently” loaded onto a consumer profile, would be removed.

“If any consumer is aware that information relating to e-tolls/SANRAL has been loaded to his/her consumer profile, please contact one of the [listed] credit bureaus to lodge a dispute and this information will be removed.”

The CBA’s setting straight of the record comes after reports last weekend that a Gauteng motorist had been denied credit after being blacklisted for owing R60 000 in e-toll fees.

According to IOL, at least 25 other e-toll defaulters had also been given default judgments. Default judgments arise when a debtor does not respond or defend a summons they have received, and a default judgment automatically means blacklisting.

Shortly after reports of the shock discovery by the Gauteng consumer, Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) – the body appointed by Sanral to collect e-toll fees – said it had applied to the courts for about 1 400 default judgments against road users who had neglected to pay their e-toll fees, and had ignored court summonses.

According to Eyewitness News, ETC chief executive Coenie Vermaak said that over 15 000 summonses had been sent to court for e-toll users who had not settled their e-toll accounts.

*To read the law that underpins the CBA’s statement first-hand, click HERE.